Holiday Fluff
by Ava Caita
Summary: Gryffindors are forced to side with Slytherins. In the snow! Magic is used outside of the classroom. And a snog is shared!


**A/N:** This is AU Harry Potter and friends, and I've called it 'fluff' for a reason. I think I wrote it two years ago during a snow storm. It's meant to take place sometime after fourth year (perhaps during the break in fifth year before … Sirius). I made up how the town was set-up because … it's AU. It was beta'd by my dear friend Lady Goodman. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, et al belong to J. K. Rowling, Arthur A. Levine Books, Bloomsbury, and Warner Bros (I've always envisioned Tom Felton while writing Draco!).

**Holiday Fluff**

It was the last weekend before the term was over and the Christmas holiday would begin. The small town of Hogsmeade was covered with a dusting of snow. The wind and heavy snowfall from the night before had created large drifts between the shops. Icicles of every shape and size hung from the eaves, and each door was covered in holiday wreaths. Some shops had coloured faeries in the windows, and some shops had enchanted candles that twinkled like stars.

Harry and Hermione were walking arm-in-arm down High street. They were both absent mindedly humming to the tune of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". Ron and Ginny were not far behind, and both were bundled up with hand-me-down Weasley scarves sticking out of their cloaks. They were each intently listening to the other two humming.

"I bet this place looks even more beautiful at night," gushed Ginny. Everyone quietly agreed. They paused in front of the entrance to Honeydukes and admired the holly entangled in the cast iron bench near the door.

FWOMP FWOMP

Two snowballs narrowly missed Harry's head, and instead plastered the wall of Honeydukes with slush. Harry had barely turned his head to catch whomever had thrown the snow when …

SPLAT

A snowball broke against Harry's head, sending his glasses crashing to the pavement.

"Ginny, duck!" shouted Hermione.

Much to Hermione's dismay Ginny wasn't quick enough and a wet snowball hit her squarely in the back. Ron jumped in front of another, shielding his sister from a dead-on hit to the head.

Harry searched for his glasses on his hands and knees. When his fingers brushed against them they were cold and wet. Carefully, he wiped the lenses with the edge of his scarf. The snowballs continued to fly over his head, and seemed to be materializing out of thin air. This wasn't so surprising in the wizarding world, but Harry knew there was something more at work here.

He scanned the opposite side of the street. Every now and then he ducked down to miss being pegged again. Ron and Ginny were crouched down; together they were furiously packing snow and making a large white pile of their own ammunition. Hermione was waving her wand and throwing small jets of fire at the oncoming barrage. This only made the snowballs more watery when they hit their intended targets, or, as most of them did, splashed against the side of the building and sent slush everywhere.

Finally, Harry spotted a familiar head of silver hair near an outcropping of trees.

"Malfoy!" he spat. The anger rose in his voice with each syllable.

"Poor Potter is all wet!" Draco sneered back.

A wave of giggles and snorts followed Draco's retort, and Harry recognized Crabbe and Goyle's noises right away. The higher pitched laughter was harder to recognise until Pansy Parkinson stuck her head up above a snowdrift, and Ron promptly threw a snowball in her face.

"That's for hitting my sister," he shouted, and then stuck out his tongue.

Ginny tossed two other snowballs across the street, one hitting Crabbe and one hitting Zonko's. Not to be outdone, Draco enchanted three snowballs and sent them towards Hermione.

"_Accio_, snowballs!" Harry shouted as he pointed his wand at the flying snow. Two veered off course and headed towards Harry's outstretched hand, but the third simply fell to the ground just centimetres from Hermione.

"Not bad, Harry!" Hermione beamed. "You're getting quite good with that charm."

Draco laughed and sent two more snowballs towards Harry as he shouted, "His good is not good enough!" Harry wasn't quick enough to banish them and had to dodge both by pressing himself against the cold pavement.

"Enough, Malfoy!" Harry said as he pushed himself up from the ground and brushed the snow from his water-spotted cloak. "You've made your point! You're a stealthy cheater, and always will be."

"A cheater? Since when has a snowball fight had rules?"

"Since there was snow, Malfoy," Harry quickly shot back. He knew this was reaching, but no one else seemed to notice.

"There was the Great Snowball Fight of 1243," Hermione offered.

"Stay out of this! You won't be winning any House points for correct answers today." With that Draco charmed another snowball and sent it towards Hermione's wand hand.

Ron and Ginny both retaliated with snowballs that hit Draco's silver hair. He fell backwards, his arms and legs flailing.

"That's not fair!"

"But Malfoy, according to _you_, there are no rules for snowball fights," Ron laughed, holding one snowball in his throwing hand and a second in his other. The pile he and Ginny had made was slowly dwindling, but Malfoy couldn't see it from his vantage point.

"Hold, please!" Draco said his shoulders drooped just a bit. There was still snow in his hair and water dripped down the side of his face.

"Such politeness from a Malfoy. There will be no flag waving in this one!" Ginny said gaily. She tossed Hermione a snowball and they both threw them airborne.

"Fine! Perhaps we should make some 'Rules of Engagement' or what-have-you?" Draco said eyeing Crabbe and Goyle who were bumbling around trying to pack snow. Pansy was even less help as she stood shivering against an oak tree. "I'm out-numbered here, four to one."

"Should have thought about that before you started throwing snowballs at us," Harry yelled and chucked the last of Ron and Ginny's snowballs across the street.

"Ron, my fingers are too cold to make any more," Ginny sighed. "Perhaps we should listen to what that boy has to say?" She vaguely gestured towards Draco.

Fifteen minutes and several angry words later, the eight students had finally come to something of an agreement. They would stand in a circle and place all of their wands in the centre. The next person to walk out of Zonko's would be asked to divide the wands into two groups of four each, but only if that person was neither a Slytherin nor a Gryffindor. The team who lost would have to buy the team who won a round of Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. Other than that there were no other rules.

Unfortunately, the Weasley twins came out first, and only laughed and asked what their siblings were doing consorting with the likes of "Malfoy and his cronies." Next, Lavender and Neville walked past. Their pockets were full of sweets from Honeydukes, and their hands were tucked beneath their cloaks.

It had begun to snow lightly. Everyone involved in the upcoming battle was hopeful that the next person out of Zonko's would save them from the possible embarrassment of excusing themselves due to the cold. Thankfully, it was Susan Bones of Hufflepuff who pushed open the wreath-laden door and stepped onto the pavement. She happily obliged Hermione's request to divide the wands. Harry, Crabbe, Ron, and Pansy were pitched against Draco, Hermione, Ginny, and Goyle. Susan rushed off to spread the word about the upcoming fight to anyone who would listen.

"Right, so each team gets ten minutes to create their snowballs and then it's on!" Draco shouted as he pushed past Harry and ran quickly across the street.

Hermione and Ginny looked at each other. Were they really going to help that poncy twit beat one of their best friends? Hermione smiled at Ginny and grabbed her elbow. They too hurried across the street. Goyle, confused as ever, had to be told twice which team he was on.

"Okay, Ron," Harry started. He was frantically cupping snow in his hands and packing it into balls. "We have to figure out a spell to help us. You know Hermione's over there armed with both her wand and her brain. Got any ideas?"

Ron just blinked, as another snowflake hit him in the eye. Crabbe was even more lost than Goyle had been, but he tentatively began to make snowballs next to Harry.

"We just used the doubling charm when it was us against you," Pansy offered. "I'll bet Draco's using it right now, but we still have some time. It's a rather complicated spell, and I was only able to do it once."

"You try to figure it out and the rest of us will continue to pack snow," Harry responded. He was actually grateful that a Slytherin was so willing to help him.

Meanwhile, Draco was across the street ordering everyone around as usual.

"Pack those snowballs faster!" he demanded. "As soon as you have a good number I can double your efforts with the flick of my wand. However, the number of snowballs made has to be equal for the spell to work, so you better not mess this up!"

"Why do you always have to be so bossy?" Hermione said through clenched teeth.

Ginny paused for a moment. Hermione was one to talk about being bossy. She always had Ron and Harry at her skirt tails. For all the fights between the three of them, she was always the one opening her mouth with instructions, and nine times out of ten the boys would follow her lead. Ginny immediately felt guilty for thinking these things, and continued to pack the snow in front of her evenly.

"Because I am a pureblood, and I'm used to being in charge. You would know that if you weren't such a Mu…" Draco never got to finish the last word before Hermione was on top of him slapping his arms and head. "Stop! Please! I was only pointing out the obvious! We're going to get beaten, and it's going to be _your_ fault!"

"You should be used to being beaten by Harry," Ginny said smugly as she pulled Hermione from Draco. "And we should be making snowballs and not fighting. Draco, that means you too. Everyone packing snow quietly is better than you telling everyone what to do and wasting time."

Secretly, she thought Hermione probably deserved to be taken down a notch. And, she was a bit concerned for Draco. His face and neck were red from where Hermione had slapped him.

"Fine. I'll help, but only until we have an even number, and then I'm going to start working on the doubling charm."

"Fine."

Ten minutes passed and both sides of the street had enough snowballs for a hundred students. Draco and Pansy had both succeeded in doubling the efforts of their teams more than once, and the piles of snowballs served as both ammunition and walls to protect them.

Susan eyed both sides. A large crowd of students had gathered around her. She sent a blue spark down the street between the two sides to signal that it was time to begin.

There was a dizzying amount of snow being thrown from the Honeydukes' side to the Zonko's side and vice versa. The teams used both their own strength and their wands to send the snowballs. Hermione had secretly been summoning several snowballs at a time back to her camp's side and then sending them all at once through the air towards Crabbe and Pansy. Draco was only aiming for Ron and Harry, so in the end both sides were still divided.

The sun had been high in the midday sky when the fight began, but was now closer to dipping beneath the frozen lake. The walls of snowballs were now more akin to road bumps. There weren't enough snowballs to double, and so the last stand of both sides was drawing near. Two direct hits to Ron's head had him lying in the snow with his arms over his face. Harry's glasses had gone missing again and he couldn't see clearly enough to stop throwing snowballs at the oak tree. Pansy had given up long ago and was crouched behind Harry, blowing warm air into her cupped hands. Crabbe seemed to be the last man standing for their team, but Ginny quickly clipped him and he too was down.

"Brilliant hit, Ginny!" shouted Draco raising his arms above his head. "Victory! Victory!"

"We won! We actually won with Draco," Hermione giggled, shocked but impressed. She hurried back across the street and helped Ron off the ground.

"You didn't have to throw so hard, Hermione."

"You'll be fine once you have some warm Butterbeer in your stomach," she winked. "Hope you have enough Sickles on you because it's your treat!"

"Almost forgot about that part. Means we'll have to share a table with the Slytherins."

"We'll survive."

And with that they both walked into the Three Broomsticks. Pansy helped Harry find his glasses, and they followed Ron and Hermione inside. Crabbe found Goyle, and all was right again – for them.

"You played well today," Draco said. "I was almost thinking you'd be a good person to have in a pinch."

"Thank you, I think," Ginny responded, blushing a little.

He stepped closer to her and brushed a few strands of her copper hair away from her face. She blushed more deeply this time. Her freckles stood out boldly against the colour of her cheeks.

"Seeing as we are the winning team, would you mind if I gave you a congratulatory kiss?"

She tilted her head towards his without thinking. He placed his hands against her shoulders and pulled her closer still. Their lips met and the soft snowflakes continued to fall about them. She clutched his cloak in her hand. The cold breeze caught in their hair and twisted it into a brilliant mix of fire and ice. They lingered a moment longer, and then parted. She hurried across the street and into the warmth of the Three Broomsticks to join her friends. He paused for a moment and watched her.

"It's going to be an interesting year," he thought and then made his way into the shop.


End file.
